Veterancy
Veterancy 'is a core game mechanic in the ''Command & Conquer series, including mods such as Mental Omega. It refers to most units' ability to accumulate amount of combat experience to reach an upper rank and gain improved abilities. When units reach enough veterancy points and reach the next rank, they will gain permanent benefits. For the sake of clarity, Veteran units refers to units that have gain one veterancy level while veteran units refer to promoted units in general. Overview One key difference in Mental Omega is that static defenses like the Tesla Coil can also gain veterancy, but the proper term is '''Upgrades. The mechanics are the same, however. Another key difference in Mental Omega is that veterancy insignias are invisible to enemies (and vice versa), making the bonuses gained by veterancy hard to notice without engaging these veteran units/defenses. EVA will notify the player if a unit or defense gains a veterancy rank immediately with respective quotes ("Unit promoted" and "Defense upgraded"). Heroes will respond with a special quote and a specific sound will play when they reach elite status as well. Both situations are only audible to the owner of such veteran units. Units have two levels of veterancy: Veteran (signified by a chevron for units and heroes) and Elite (signified by a golden star for regular units and additional chevrons for heroes). For defenses, the equivalent insignias are an upward arrow inside a square for "Veterans", and an upward arrow inside a square but colored orange for "Elites". Veteran units gain a 40% increase in their armor, while Elite units gain 40% increase in firepower, 25% increase in speed, and self-healing trait, along with the veteran benefit as well. This also applies to defenses, but the speed bonus is not included due to their static nature. Some units cannot gain veterancy mostly due to their nature of attack (Demolition Truck's suicide explosion). In one exception, the Terror Drone cannot gain veterancy while Chitzkoi, a hero that attacks similarly to a Terror Drone, can. Gaining veterancy Veterancy is mainly acquired by destroying certain amount of enemies. An individual unit/defense must destroy 4.5x of its cost to gain one veterancy level (unlike in vanilla RA2 and YR, where only 3x of its cost is needed). Formula: L = C * 4.5 , where L is the veterancy level and C is the unit cost. For instance, an Attack Dog/Spook costs $100. If it kills $450 worth of units (say, 9 Conscripts or 3 Flak Troopers), it will become a veteran. The Attack Dog/Spook has to kill another $450 worth of units to become elite. However, if the Attack Dog/Spook kills a single infantry unit that costs over $900 (say, an Epsilon Infiltrator that costs $1000), the Dog will become an elite immediately. Therefore, the cheaper the unit, the easier for it to gain veterancy. On the flipside, expensive units like epic units need to stay alive longer to destroy enough enemies to gain even one veterancy level. Special interactions Mind-controllers can gain 75% of the experience through their mind-control victims. For instance, an Epsilon Adept has seized control of an enemy Rhino Tank. The mind-controlled Rhino Tank destroys a Borillo that costs $1000. The Rhino Tank has gained 1000 out of 4050 ($900 * 4.5) veterancy points needed, while the Epsilon Adept only gains 750 out of 4500 ($1000 * 4.5) veterancy points needed. Similarly, spawner units such as the Destroyer and Aircraft Carrier can gain 75% of the experience through their spawned units. For instance, a Destroyer defeats a Typhoon Attack Sub with its spawned Osprey. Since the Osprey has a declared cost value of $100, it is promoted to elite immediately (1000 out of 450 veterancy points needed, exceeding the requirement), while the Destroyer only gains 750 out of 4950 ($1100 * 4.5) veterancy points needed. The passengers can gain experience inside opentopped transports (such as the Battle Tortoise and Centurion Siege Crawler), IFVs, Opus Tank and the Stinger only if these transporting vehicles are already Elite. Units that call airstrikes (Boris and Morales) gain 100% of the experience from enemy buildings destroyed by their airstrikes. The one-of-a-kind Boidmachine is capable of gaining veterancy by destroying units with its Boidblitz support power (100% of experience is transferred). Other methods Veterancy can be obtained by other means. These options often grant immediate veteran levels. * Collecting a random crate that grants a veterancy bonus. The bonus happens in a 5x5 area-of-effect, meaning that multiple units can gain a veterancy level immediately. * Infiltrating a Barracks or a War Factory with an espionage unit, which causes all infantry or vehicles respectively owned by the espionage unit's owner to be built as veterans. This bonus is permanent once successfully executed. * Capturing the proper tech building with an Engineer that causes all the owner's forces to be trained as veteran as long as the owner does not lose the tech building. The tech buildings are as follows: Tech Academy for infantry, Tech Heavy Machinery for vehicles, Tech Aeronautics for aircraft, Tech Defense Bureau for defenses, and Tech Military Docks for naval vessels. Do note that this option is only possible if these tech buildings can be found in the map. Category:Gameplay